Director: Martin Ritt
Year Released: 1979
Rating: 2.0
Slick but ineffectual anti-capitalist parable that ends up at a 'happy' resolution ... but never explains how it got there. Director Ritt and his screenwriters do a fine job of creating an interesting lead character - played by Sally Field - but do a poor job of explaining her function in the whole scheme of things. Field, along with her family and husband, work in a noisy, impersonal, dehumanizing textile mill (for less-than-minimum wage) that would make Marx, Engels and Deleuze all roll over in their respective graves. One fine day, a Jewish (symbolic you say? No!) union guy shows up and encourages the people of the plant to encourage them to fight against the powers-that-be. Meanwhile, a meaningful relationship builds up between Field and this union gentleman, much to the dismay of her husband, and the other people at the plant, who, for some reason, oppose the idea of having a union helping them out (it's made very clear that almost everyone in this film has an IQ less than 60). The events that play out seem unlikely and contradictory, considering the trajectory of the film's narrative. There also isn't a real sense of urgency in it - when tragedy hits one of the people of the plant, Ritt glazes over it so quickly that we almost forget it happened, and it doesn't feel compelling.
